Careers Strategy in UK – A third of the time, the minimum experiences of seven encounters with employers are not taking place

The government’s Careers Strategy tasked schools and colleges with providing each young person a minimum of seven encounters with employers (at least one encounter per year) and at least two opportunities for workplace experiences.

90% of 15,025 surveyed teenagers agreed that work experience had helped them better understand why it is important to do well at school

This report explores the current level of employer engagement in education in England and compares this with the ambitions set out in the government’s Careers Strategy. The analysis reveals that there is a need to substantially increase the level of employer engagement in English secondary schools and colleges and points to where the shortfalls are most acute.

To meet this ambition, employers need to o er at least 4 million employer encounters and 1 million workplace experiences every year. The 4 million employer encounters each year follows directly from the approximately 4 million young people in the seven years of secondary education at any one me. With around 500,000 to 600,000 young people in each year group, providing two workplace experiences at some point over those seven years translates into an average of around 1 million required annually.

A third of the time, those minimum experiences are not taking place. In fact, some young people get more than the minimum level described in the Careers Strategy, while others get a lot less. This uneven distribution is such that the majority of young people miss out on at least one of the recommended nine minimum activities. And at best only 37% of young people are currently benefiting from the full minimum standard for employer encounters.

Chosen excerpts by Job Market Monitor. Read the whole story at Closing the Gap report | The Careers & Enterprise Company